Hi guys!
I am about to experiment with creating a wordpress website. I need advice on how best to do this; articles, etc.

Right now my current website at jerrygrasso.com works great. I don’t want to disturb this while I play. Long term I’d like to be able to switch from my current website to my new wp website or back again as needed until I’m happy with my new site. Then I would remove my current site.

Also, what would be the best way to go about building the new wordpress site:
Install wp on my local computer and build it there and then move it to Dreamhost?

So, I don’t even know where to begin. Create a sub-domain? How? I would create a new database and not reuse the current one.

Any help or help articles anyone can suggest would be be greatly appreciated.

I would suggest you navigate to “Manage Domains” in the panel and add a new subdomain called something like “mytest.jerrygrasso.com” (or whatever sub domain name you like). You can accept most of the defaults there except the first two… For “Do you want the www in your URL?” my preference there is to change it to “remove WWW”… just don’t set it to “leave it alone” that setting leads to confusion. The second thing you will want to change is the “Run this domain under the user:” drop-down. Make that say “Create a new user” and then in the box that appears supply a new user name. (this helps keep your experiment in an entirely separate space from your current site.)

Step 2: WAIT. Wait until you can visit mytest.jerrygrasso.com (or whatever you named it above) and see the default “dreamhost coming soon” page. If you don’t wait, what will probably happan in the next step is you will get emailed a link that doesn’t work yet, and that will confuse you.)

I would suggest you navigate to “Manage Domains” in the panel and add a new subdomain called something like “mytest.jerrygrasso.com” (or whatever sub domain name you like). You can accept most of the defaults there except the first two… For “Do you want the www in your URL?” my preference there is to change it to “remove WWW”… just don’t set it to “leave it alone” that setting leads to confusion. The second thing you will want to change is the “Run this domain under the user:” drop-down. Make that say “Create a new user” and then in the box that appears supply a new user name. (this helps keep your experiment in an entirely separate space from your current site.)

Step 2: WAIT. Wait until you can visit mytest.jerrygrasso.com (or whatever you named it above) and see the default “dreamhost coming soon” page. If you don’t wait, what will probably happan in the next step is you will get emailed a link that doesn’t work yet, and that will confuse you.)